Paolo Ghidoni (violino) e Marco Tezza (piano) suonano Grieg e Brahms al Festival Grieg in Bergen

Paolo Ghidoni was born in Mantova, Italy, and graduated with honours from the Conservatory of Music in Mantova at the age of 17, under the guidance of Ferruccio Sangiorgi.
He attended three years of professional orchestral qualifications courses at the Music School in Fiesole, as well as continuing his studies with Franco Gulli at the “Accademia Chigiana” in Siena. Both here and in Fiesole, he obtained his diploma in chamber music with the “Trio di Trieste”.

Ghidoni has won a large number of awards, including the “Vittorio Gui” competition in
Florence in 1983 with the “Trio Matisse”, with whom he has played for more than 25 years all over the world. He also holds prizes from the competitions in Stresa, Cesena, and Rome, as well as the Brahms competition in Pörtschach, Austria.
In 1998, thanks to a suggestion from the composer György Kurtag, he started playing the first violin with the Orlando Quartet in Amsterdam. He has been the first solo violin in the ensemble “Virtuosi Italiani” for 15 years, and has also collaborated with musicians such as Dino Sciolla, Mario Brunello, Enrico Dindo, Giuliano Carmignola, and Bruno Canino. He is the leader and first violinist of the “Quartetto dell’Accademia Virgiliana” in Mantova, and co-founder of the piano trio “Trio di Mantova”.

Ghidoni has given more than 1500 concerts and tours throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia. He has made recordings on the Hermitage, Bongiovanni, Dynamic, and Brilliant Classic labels, including the complete violin concertos by the Italian composer Alessandro Rolla.
During the last years, he has also been rediscovering many lesser known Italian composers, whose compositions he has recorded from unedited manuscripts.
He plays violins by Corrado Cavalieri, Giuseppe Arrè, and Santa Giuilana, and uses a “Sartory” bow, which was owned by the great violinist Franco Claudio Ferrari.
Ghidoni currently teaches chamber music at the conservatory in Mantova.

Tezza has been a prizewinner in several international piano competitions: Citta di Treviso (1st prize); La Spezia (1st prize), RAI (1st prize), Moncalieri (European Prize for Chamber Music), Busoni Viotti and Pretoria.
To these important prizes he adds a rich concert activity in prestigious concert halls in Europe, North and South America, Africa and the Middle-East, with appearances in cities such as Rome, Milan, Zürich, Geneva, Paris, Sofia, Pretoria, Washington, New York, Beirut, Beijing and São Paolo, to name but a very few. He has also collaborated, both as a soloist and as a conductor, with chamber and symphonic orchestras all over the world.

Nevertheless, his concert commitments did not prevent him from concluding his studies in violin, which have proved to be extremely important for his subsequent career as a conductor.

His creative personality has led him to collaborate with important partners for chamber music, such as Ughi, Brunello, Carmignola, Ashkenazy, Klein and Nordio. With the bandoneonist Massimiliano Pitocco and the double bass player Daniele Roccato, Marco Tezza has started the ensemble TrisTango, which plays Piazzolla’s repertoire in new versions, influenced by various musical genres. He has also collaborated with important conductors such as Rizzi, Pidò, Hogwood, and Hacker.